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THE  RELATION  OF  PALEONTOLOGY  TO  THE  HISTORY 

OF  MAN,  WITH  PARTICULAR  REFERENCE  TO 

THE  AMERICAN  PROBLEM 


By  Pkofessor  JOHN  C.  MEKKIAM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


Reprinted  from  the  PoPuiiAB  Sciencb  Monthly,  December,  1910. 


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[Reprinted  from  The  Popular  Scusnce  Moniblt,  Dtrreniber,  IL'IO.] 


THE   EELATIOX   OF   PALEONTOLOGY  TO   THE   HISTOEY 

OF   MAX,  WITH   PARTICULAR   REFERENCE  TO 

THE   AMERICAN   PROBLEM 

By  Professor  JOHN  C.   MERRIAM 

UKITERSITY   OF  CALIFORNIA 

CONSIDERED  in  its  broadest  aspect,  the  most  important  relation 
of  paleontology  to  the  study  of  man  concerns  the  support  which 
it  gives  to  the  general  theory  of  evolution  of  the  organic  world.  If  it 
be  held  that  we  have  reason  to  believe  man,  with  all  his  highest 
qualities,  a  product  of  evolution  out  of  so-called  lower  animal  t}T)es, 
then  it  becomes  necessary  to  have  a  fuU  knowledge  of  the  history  of 
man  and  of  the  forms  preceding  him,  in  order  to  understand  the  origin 
and  the  true  nature  of  man's  fundamental  characteristics  as  they  exist 
to-day.     On  the  other  hand,  if  ttiere  is  reason  to  believe  that  man  as 


598         ;,_  '.  \m:^:;E'OI'pMn^  '.SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

represented  in  his  highest  attributes  is  entirely  apart  from  nature,  the 
importance  of  paleontology,  as  offering  a  part  of  the  explanation  of  the 
fundamental  characteristics  of  man,  is  very  greatly  diminished.  The 
value  of  paleontology  would  then  lie  largely  in  an  interpretation  of  the 
setting  or  environment  in  which  man  is  developing. 

With  these  considerations  in  mind,  it  appears  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance for  us  to  obtain  as  full  a  history  of  the  organic  world,  and  as 
satisfactory  an  interpretation  of  the  processes  therein  concerned,  as  it 
is  possible  to  secure.  Particularly  is  it  desirable  to  have  before  us  a 
clear  statement  of  that  portion  of  the  paleontological  record  which 
leads  from  the  higher  vertebrates  through  the  primate  division  to  man. 

One  of  the  important  phases  of  general  paleontological  work  which 
must  receive  special  attention  is  the  early  history  of  the  primate  order 
with  particular  reference  to  the  development  of  those  characteristics 
which  are  most  prominent  in  the  human  family.  We  have,  as  yet, 
accumulated  too  little  evidence  in  this  field.  Among  the  characters 
which  must  be  followed  would  be  ( 1 )  extraordinary  brain  development, 
(2)  the  tendency  to  development  of  an  upright  position,  (3)  the  free- 
ing of  the  anterior  limbs  from  the  work  of  locomotion  and  the  develop- 
ment in  them  of  extraordinary  adaptability.  Whatever  other  interests 
one  may  have,  there  is  certainly  no  more  alluring  problem  than  tracing 
from  the  primitive  mammalia  into  the  early  primate  those  peculiar 
characters  through  which  later  on  primitive  man  began  the  process  of 
making  nature  subservient  to  himself.  We  may  never  know  whether 
the  brain  actually  grew  large  first  and  requisitioned  the  hands,  so  that 
the  animal  became  bipedal  and  therefore  finally  erect  in  position,  or 
whether  a  tendency  to  erect  position  was  directed  by  the  frequent  as- 
suming of  a  vertical  position  in  a  tree-climbing  ancestor;  but  it  is  not 
beyond  reason  to  presume  that  a  thoroughly  satisfactory  paleontological 
record  miglit  give  us  an  explanation  of  the  origin  of  these  characters. 

The  later  primate  history,  or  that  which  leads  directly  to  the 
human  type,  is  also  unfortunately  incomplete,  though  most  remarkable 
advances  have  been  made  in  the  last  few  years.  More  missing  links 
have  already  been  furnished  than  science  was  supposed  to  require  a 
few  decades  ago,  but  we  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  one  tenth  of  the 
material  that  it  is  desirable  to  have  in  order  to  show  the  transition  from 
anthropoid  to  human,  or  from  pithecanthropoid  to  the  type  of  Spy  or 
Neanderthal.  European  paleontologists  are  at  the  present  time  making 
rapid  strides  in  filling  the  gaps  of  that  portion  of  our  ancestral  chain 
which  falls  in  the  Quaternary  system,  and  we  may  look  for  other 
important  discoveries  within  the  next  decade. 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  greater  part  of  the  work  on  the  late 
Tertiary  and  Quaternary  history  of  man  will  be  carried  on  in  the  old 
world.     The  writer  sees  no  reason  why  in  this  important  work  Amer- 


THE   BIRTHPLACE    OF   MAN  599 

ican  paleontologists  should  not  interest  themselves  to  some  extent  in 
investigations  now  in  progress  in  Europe  and  Asia,  just  as  American 
archeologists  have  contributed  to  the  success  of  work  on  the  later  his- 
tory of  man.  Whether  American  paleontologsits,  working  in  their  own 
field,  are  to  have  a  part  in  interpreting  the  Pleistocene  history  of  man 
is  a  burning  question  at  the  present  time. 

Whether  we  find  that  man  was  in  Xorth  America  in  Pleistocene 
time  or  not,  it  is  certainly  true  that  one  of  the  most  important  prob- 
lems in  the  general  history  of  the  human  race  concerns  the  date  of 
occupation  of  the  western  hemisphere  by  the  human  family.  Discussion 
of  the  numerous  finds  reported  to  represent  Pleistocene  man  in  North 
America  are  too  well  known  to  every  one  to  require  particular  mention. 
It  should  only  be  noted  in  passing,  that  as  yet  no  specimens  represent- 
ing either  skeletal  remains  or  implements  of  man  found  in  North 
America  are  generally  recognized  by  geologists  and  paleontologists  as 
of  Pleistocene  age.  A  careful  search  through  the  literature,  and  the 
investigation  of  many  of  the  actual  occurrences,  lead  the  writer  to  the 
conclusion  that  we  have,  as  yet,  nothing  in  North  America  which  can 
be  considered  as  unquestionably  representing  Pleistocene  man. 

Also  in  South  America  there  has  been  serious  discussion  of  many 
interesting  finds.  The  evidence  on  the  whole  seems  to  be  more  dis- 
tinctly in  favor  of  Pleistocene  occupation  there  than  is  the  case  in 
North  America.  The  discoveries  made  in  recent  years  in  the  cave  at 
Last  Hope  Inlet,  and  the  numerous  remains  found  in  the  Pampean 
formation  at  levels  very  far  below  the  surface,  seem  difficult  to  interpret 
excepting  on  the  supposition  that  man  was  present  in  South  America 
before  the  beginning  of  the  recent  epoch. 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  any  occupation  of  South  America  would 
necessarily  be  through  migration  by  way  of  the  northern  continent,  and 
proof  of  the  presence  of  man  in  South  America  in  Pleistocene  time 
would  be  tantamount  to  proof  that  he  was  in  North  America  at  least 
as  early.  This  suggestion  does  not,  of  course,  take  into  account  the 
theories  of  Ameghino  to  the  effect  that  man  is  possibly  derived  from 
some  of  the  South  American  monkey  forms.  Another  suggestion  made 
by  Ameghino  would  give  us  an  immigration  of  old  world  forms,  pos- 
sibly with  ancestral  man,  coming  into  the  southern  continent  in  com- 
paratively late  time,  by  some  other  route  than  North  America. 

In  the  consideration  of  man's  history  in  America,  it  is  particularly 
important  to  notice  the  probable  relation  of  migrations  of  the  human 
family  to  migrations  of  other  groups  of  mammals.  The  presumption 
is  that  the  migrations  of  primitive  man  were  caused  or  occasioned 
largely  by  influences  of  the  same  sort  as  have  produced  the  spreading 
out  or  migration  of  many  other  mammalian  tj'pes.  It  becomes  then 
particularly  necessary  to  discover  exactly  when  the  more  recent  migra- 


6oo  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

tions  of  mammals  into  the  North  American  continent  have  taken  place, 
and,  so  far  as  possible,  the  exact  routes  of  migration.  This  problem  is 
in  a  large  part  paleontological,  requiring  for  its  interpretation  a  satis- 
factory account  of  the  paleontology  of  vertebrates,  invertebrates  and 
plants  of  North  America  and  of  Asia,  with  particular  reference  to  the 
relations  of  adjacent  areas.  We  must  also  have,  associated  with  this 
information,  a  full  statement  of  the  crustal  movements  in  these  regions 
as  interpreted  by  the  stratigraphic  geologists  and  the  physiographers. 

Through  the  accumulated  efforts  of  paleontologists  in  this  country 
particularly,  we  have  already  a  considerable  mass  of  evidence  bearing 
on  the  general  relationships  of  the  faunas  of  North  America  and  Asia 
in  comparatively  recent  geological  time,  but  the  detail  of  the  problem 
is,  as  yet,  scarcely  indicated.  Particularly  for  Pleistocene  and  Pliocene 
time  our  knowledge  of  the  faunal  succession  is  exceedingly  meager,  and 
we  can  scarcely  expect  to  know  anything  satisfactorily  until  the  Pleisto- 
cene mammalian  paleontology  of  America  has  been  worked  out  in 
detail.  This  work  must  be  followed  or  accompanied  by  similar  studies 
of  the  mammalian  faunas  of  western  and  southern  Asia.  When  this  is 
completed  we  shall  know  the  time  of  the  various  migratory  movements, 
the  nature  of  the  faunas  which  migrated,  the  character  of  the  land  areas 
over  which  they  have  passed,  and  the  climatic  conditions  which  obtained 
along  the  routes  of  migration.  The  presumption  is,  that  when  this  is 
done  we  shall  have  actual  evidence  of  the  time  of  man's  occupation  of 
North  America. 

Viewed  in  the  large,  and  without  regard  to  the  detail  which  has 
just  been  indicated,  it  seems  possible  to  present  several  reasonable 
conclusions  with  reference  to  the  probable  period  of  migration  of  man 
to  America.  It  is  shown  by  study  of  a  map  of  linguistic  stocks  of  the 
western  hemisphere  that  the  northern  and  southern  continents  taken 
together  may  be  divided  into  between  one  hundred  and  two  hundred 
provinces,  based  on  the  number  of  stocks  represented.  These  lan- 
guages vary  greatly  in  their  structure,  and  are  not  similar  to  the 
languages  of  other  parts  of  the  world.  There  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  a  large  percentage  of  them  have  been  developed  by  lin- 
guistic differentiation  which  occurred  since  man  first  occupied  this  con- 
tinent, and  that  measured  in  years  the  time  required  for  this  differentia- 
tion has  been  long.  On  the  other  hand,  considering  the  American  con- 
tinent as  a  whole,  we  find  that  the  greatly  differing  physical  environ- 
ments are  not  reflected  to  any  extent  in  different  physical  types  of  people 
occupying  this  region.  That  the  human  family  is  not  exempt  from 
physical  differentiation,  such  as  is  almost  universally  indicated  in  mam- 
mals which  have  for  some  time  been  distributed  over  large  areas  with 
varying  environments,  is  clearly  shown  by  the  map  of  the  old  world. 
In  that  region  the  human  race  is  known  to  have  been  spread  over  a  wide 


THE   BIRTHPLACE    OF   MAN  601 

area  for  a  long  period,  and  we  find  several  greatly  differing  human 
physical  stocks  in  different  geographic  regions,  just  as  we  find  differing 
stocks  of  mammals  and  birds. 

With  the  lack  of  physical  diversity  among  the  people  of  the  western 
hemisphere,  there  is  also  noticeable  a  resemblance  of  the  whole  group 
to  the  people  of  the  adjacent  region  of  Asia.  Judged  by  the  standards 
of  differentiation  which  we  obtain  through  a  study  of  the  history  of 
geographical  distribution  of  other  mammalian  groups,  we  have  every 
reason  to  think  that  the  people  of  America  are  immigrants  who  came 
from  the  Asiatic  region  and  spread  themselves  over  America  after  the 
peifod  of  the  first  great  physical  differentiation  of  the  race,  and  so 
recently  that  a  second  stage  of  physical  differentiation  has  not  yet  had 
time  to  develop.  On  the  other  hand,  the  time  measured  in  years  has 
been  long  enough  so  that  linguistic  differentiation  could  take  place. 

Inasmuch  as  a  large  part  of  human  history  falls  within  the  Quater- 
nary period,  the  question  naturally  arises  as  to  whether  the  principal 
migrations  of  man  to  the  American  continent  occurred  before,  during 
or  after  the  Glacial  epoch. 

As  primates  are  naturally  animals  of  a  warm  or  temperate  zone, 
it  is  hardly  to  be  presumed  that  primitive  man  came  to  America  during 
the  ice  age,  though  there  is  a  possibility  of  immigration  in  some  of  the 
interglacial  epochs.  Judging  from  what  is  suggested  through  study  of 
physical  differentiation,  it  appears  improbable  that  man  came  over  as 
early  as  the  epoch  preceding  the  ice  age.  In  other  groups  of  animals 
spread  over  large  areas,  marked  physical  differentiation  has  ordinarily 
taken  place  in  a  space  of  time  comparable  to  the  Glacial  epoch.  Had 
man  been  present  in  America  during  this  long  period,  widely  differing 
physical  types  would  almost  certainly  have  developed.  On  the  whole  it 
seems  most  probable  that  he  arrived  after  the  end  of  the  last  division 
of  glacial  time,  or  very  near  the  beginning  of  the  present  epoch. 
Whether  his  arrival  is  shown  to  have  occurred  just  before  or  just  after 
the  beginning  of  this  epoch  remains  to  be  determined. 

In  conclusion  it  seems  desirable  to  call  the  attention  of  paleontolo- 
gists once  more  to  the  important  part  which  their  work  must  play  in 
obtaining  the  information  which  we  need  with  reference  to  the  history 
of  man  and  his  antecedents.  Only  a  small  beginning  has  been  made, 
and  the  results  which  must  come  are  of  great  importance  in  the  lal-ge 
problem  of  man's  relation  to  nature.  It  is  necessary  that  paleontolo- 
gists keep  the  subject  before  them,  in  order  to  make  certain  that  all 
information  bearing  upon  it  may  be  recognized  as  it  becomes  available, 
and  be  given  its  proper  place  in  relation  to  other  evidence  now  at  hand. 


,  g  ig7.f  DAY  USE 

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